Prospect Park in a Labor Dispute Over All My Children?

[jo.frank88]

I REALLY REALLY want to be hopeful with this transition to online..hopeful for ALL the soaps b/c I want the 4 broadcast newtork soaps to have a future too and I really feel alot of that plays upon what happens with PP and TOLN. I will remain optimistic as long as these shows are in production.. but gosh this just seems like not a good sign hit after hit after hit.. and we're what 5 weeks in?

[greens_dupres]

Yeah, while another negative sounding story is the absolute last thing PP (or stressed fans) need, I really don't think this one is the biggest deal. If they did violate something in the collective bargaining agreement, I imagine they will attempt to settle with the union rep but I don't think PP is necessarily the EVIL here. There is nothing in the reports yet that indicate that any kind of grievance has been filed. This is a whole new kind of union contract for new media and it makes sense that their reps may not fully understand all the legal mechanics or that they are trying to squeeze PP for some extra money on behalf of their members who likely have taken a pay cut on this project.

[katie_9918]

Well, if anyone involved needs more money, that explains that ridiculous lawsuit against ABC.

[John]

Ok so PP loaned 7 OLTL roles to GH and had story approval but ABC blocked that, killed off two roles that didnt belong to them & wrote an 8th character not loaned to them as he was really a GH role, Alcazar & PP shouldnt sue. I hope they get a big pay off & they will win. ABC screwed this up. PP was in the right.

[jfung79]

Whoever was talking about how there was no drama last week jinxed it ... Sounds like the cut in episodes means more was spent per episode. So the union has a good case. But no one wins if the production goes under. Hope the two sides can come to a mutual agreement in good faith and satisfactory to both.

[Soapsuds]

Yup...it had nothing to do with them being able to churn episodes with good quality stories..that was bullshit...lol..it was about spending more than they should have...LMAO...what a mess.

[jfung79]

Well what I meant would have still fit with their explanation for cutting the episodes. I just meant because of their cutting episodes, if they still have a certain amount of fixed cost, it means more money is spent per episode, the crux of the dispute, even if less money is spent overall.

But what you say could be true too-- it could also have been that they were spending more than they should have per episode already before the cutback, and they were going way over budget, and going over budget is what led to the cutback.

[Vee]

It's considerably more complicated than that. It had to do with the production pace.

[jfung79]

Good point, that plays into how much they're spending per episode too. If they take, say, (random number I'm making up) 2 days instead of a planned 1 day to make an episode, then they're going to end up spending more to make the episode.

[John]

They shoot out of order and episodes are edited together. They never shoot in sequence. Its about their budget per day not per episode

[jfung79]

The article says the dispute is over budget per episode. Shooting out of sequence doesn't matter as the cost per episode is probably calculated as an average of some sort - total cost per total episodes.

If they take more days to make a certain number of episodes than they planned, then it could well mean they spent more.

[John]

Its about them according to their deal with that union not spending more than 125,000 a day

[jfung79]

The wording in the TheWrap article is very clear -- not more than $125,000 per episode, not per day.

Where are you seeing per day?

[John]

Because they film out of order all soaps do and they all budget pER DAY. Maybe The Wrap has it WRONG.

[John]

Personally I think this was leaked to the Wrap & they ran with it. I feel what actually is going on with is the union is inquiring and PP gave them the books. So both sides are being co-operative. I think the article is making this bigger deal than it truly is.